Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia -Videos

Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia showcases maps from the world’s greatest collections – many of which have never been seen in Australia. These are the maps that shaped our world – taking us on a journey from ancient and medieval notions of a Great South Land to Flinders’ 1814 chart of Australia. Centrepiece of the exhibition will be the circa 1450 Fra Mauro, one of the most famous world maps of all time. It has never left its home at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice – until now.

Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia will be shown only at the National Library of Australia, Canberra for a limited season.

Acquired by the National Library in 2013, this Dutch wall chart by VOC cartographer Joan Blaeu is the most important map documenting Australia's presence prior to the arrival of the British. This video documents the acquisition and initial preservation work undertaken.
Includes Dr. Martin Woods, Curator of maps; Robin Tait, Head of conservation.

Curators from the National Library of Australia, Dr Martin Woods, Dr Susannah Helman and Nat Williams, tell the story of
Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia. The exhibition takes us on a journey from ancient and medieval notions of a 'great south land' to Flinders' 1814 chart of Australia. It brings together more than 100 spectacular maps, atlases, globes and scientific instruments from the collections of the National Library of Australia and from Australian and international lenders including the Vatican Library, the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France.

Nat Williams, James and Bettison Treasures Curator at the National Library of Australia, discusses the Fra Mauro Map of the World. Created by the monk Fra Mauro between 1390-1459, it is one of the most important and famous maps of all time and the crown jewel of the collections of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice. For the first time in its nearly 600-year history, it will leave Italy to appear in the National Library of Australia's exhibition Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia.

Dr Martin Woods, Curator of Maps at the National Library of Australia, discusses the maps that resulted from two almost simultaneous expeditions to New Holland, the French one led Nicholas Baudin and the British voyage led by Matthew Flinders. Both the French cartographer Louis de Freycinet and Flinders charted much of the Southern and Eastern parts of Australia, and much more closely than had the Dutch, both had access to the Dutch charts of Northern and Western Australia and made use of these to complete their work. These groundbreaking maps feature in the National's Library exhibition Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia.

Martin Woods, Curator of Maps at the National Library of Australia, discusses early depictions of 'the great south land', from ancient Greek interpretations of the Antipodes to maps of New Holland by the Dutch in the 1600s and 1700s with the various names used including Terra Australis, Jave Le Grande and Magallanica. Some maps on display in the National Library of Australia's exhibition Mapping Our World: Terra Incognita to Australia include the anonymous work known as The Harleian Map, The Boke of Idrography by Jean Rotz and the the work of Hessel Gerritsz, Chief Cartographer of the Dutch East India Company.